Glen Campbell ‘Doing Good’ but ‘Wants to Go Home’ Says Daughter Debby

WASHINGTON, DC - MAY 16: Glen Campbell performs during the Alzheimer's Association Evening with Glen Campbell at The Library of Congress on May 16, 2012 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Kris Connor/Getty Images)

Glen Campbell (Kris Connor/Getty Images)

By Kurt Wolff

Since this past April, singer Glen Campbell has been living in a special care facility due to advances in his battle with Alzheimer’s disease. He had previously been living with his family, including his wife Kim, at his home in Nashville, but the task of caring for him had become too great for the family to handle alone.

In a recent interview, though, Campbell’s daughter Debby (who lives in Arizona) said that, while her dad is “doing good,” she feels he his living situation is less than ideal.

“I think my dad deserves better than this,” Debby Campbell told Country Weekly. “I’m not saying it’s bad by any means, but I don’t think he’s getting the attention that he needs. If I felt that [his family in Nashville] was spending hours with him and eating meals with him, it would be different. If I lived there, I would want to spend from the time he wakes in the morning until the evening with him . . . But why can’t I do that in the comfort of my own home with him instead of flying to Nashville and going to a care facility?”

Debby said that she she would prefer to relocate her father to her home in Arizona, but Glen’s wife Kim has not yet responded to a recent request. “I want to take on that responsibility,” Debby said, adding: “He wants to go home. Numerous times he has told me that.”

After moving him into the care facility last April, Campbell’s wife Kim had described him as “happy and content” and “doing pretty well, considering everything.”

She later gave an update, noting that while he still plays guitar occasionally, his musical skills had significantly deteriorated. “If I tune [a guitar] and hand it to him he can still play, [but] not like he used to,” she toldPeople. He can, though, at least “play a couple licks here and there, and he finds joy in that.”

The comments from Campbell’s daughter Debby offer the most recent insight into his condition. “He does recognize me, and it comes and goes,” she said. “He always knows that I’m a loved one, but whether I’m his daughter or his sister, sometimes he struggles. Yesterday when I visited him, he said, ‘You look just like Mom,’ which I’ve been told most of my life. I favor my grandma—his mom—quite a bit. But overall, he’s in great spirits.”

Campbell announced he had Alzheimer’s in 2011. The following year he embarked on a national Goodbye Tour, in which he performed some of his best-known songs including “Rhinestone Cowboy,” “Southern Nights,” “Wichita Lineman” and “Gentle on My Mind.”He also mixed in newer content from recent albums Meet Glen Campbell and Ghost on the Canvas.